Succotash In A Nutshell

Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast is a show that features other comedy soundcasts (AKA "podcasts") and in an effort to not only expose audiences to the wide range of comedy offerings available, but also to broaden the appeal of podcasts in general. Hosted by Marc Hershon, whose background in the worlds of comedy, writing and product naming gives him the chops necessary to come off sounding like a blustering know-it-all.
The show is produced and engineered by Joe Paulino out of Sausalito's Studio P, "The Home Of The Hit." Our associate producer is Tyson Saner, and our booth announcer is Bill Heywatt.

Yes, ‘tis I. Marc Hershon — your humble host and seasonal perennial for Epi144 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. This is an installment of Succotash Chats, where we pin down some unlucky wretch from the world of soundcasting and interview the bejeezus out of them.

Our Special Guest this episode is Ben Tippett, host of the Titanium Physicists Podcast. I'm only calling it a podcast instead of a soundcast because that’s in the official title of the show. Plus Dr. Tippett insists on the term “podcast”. He’s not a fan of the soundcast moniker.

Ben's show is NOT a comedy soundcast in the classic meaning of the term. He is neither a comedian nor is the content overtly intended to be humorous. But, as you will see, he IS funny and the show itself leans heavily that way as well.

ALSO ON THE SHOW

In addition to our Special Guest Ben Tippet, we have a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst with political comedian and social commentator Will Durst and a dip into the Tweetsack. Plus we have what may be the last song by our old pal Abner Serd for a while — I tell you why towards the end of the show. And, of course, this installment of Succotash Chats is brought to you by our friends at Henderson’s Pants, exclusive makers of Santa Pants.

SHAMELESS PLUG

If you are going to be in the San Francisco area during January, chances are you will be in shouting distance of the 16th Annual S.F. Sketchfest. And I will be appearing not once but twice during this hallowed affair. On Sunday, January 15th, I will be moderating a panel before the 40th anniversary screening of Kentucky Fried Movie. I was just graduating high school when KFM came out and it was amazing. Bizarre, hilarious, and just great fun with a crazy cast, directed by John Landis, written and produced by the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abraham — the same guys who later brought us the Airplane! movies, the Police Squad TV series, which led directly to the Naked Gun movies. That will be at the Castro Theater in San Francisco.

And then a week later, on Sunday, January 22nd, I’ll be bringing Succotash to Sketchfest at 4 PM at Piano Fight in the Tenderloin. We’ll have a live 90-minute show and a great lineup of podcasters and comics. So for both or either of those shows, visit http://SFSketchfest.com to get tickets and further details.

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

If you’re going to be doing any shopping for the holidays by way of Amazon, please do use the Amazon banner at the top of the http://SuccotashShow.com homesite – when you access their site through our site, we get a tasty little morsel of a kickback, and that money helps to cover the production costs of this show. If you’re not in a buying mood, visit out homesite anyway and just click the Donate button. Every penny you donate goes to offset the production costs and upkeep for this soundcast.

And that, my friend, is that. Succotash Chats Epi144 is just another piece of soundcast history now. Hopefully we’ll have another installment dropping before Christmas but, just in case we don’t, have a very merry one and don’t forget to pass the Succotash!

Yes, it’s me. Marc Hershon — your host and hot cross bun for Epi143 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. We actually kick offthis installment of Succotash Clips with the first of two musical offerings from our chum Abner Serd over at his Shaggy Dogs & Tall Tales soundcast.

We've got a pile of snippets from comedy soundcasts to share with you. They’ve been gathered from near and far by our Associate Producer Tyson Saner, yours truly, and a few sent in by podcasters themselves via our direct upload link at http://hightail.com/u/Succotash.

Included in this show are clips from 2 Dope Queens, 288 Podcast, Bertcast, Mouth Time with Reductress, Proudly Resents, and Rex Rivetter, Private Eye.

In addition we have a post-election Burst O' Durst segment by political comedian and social commentator Will Durst, plus a month-and-a-half old chat with Chris Mancini (Comedy Film Nerds) from the Podcast Lab at the Los Angeles Podcast Festival. I’m also going to feature a good old-fashioned folk song — Jesse James Blues — by a friend of mine, Patrick Hanlon. And there’s also another song from our buddy Abner Serd, not to mention a long-awaited return to the Tweetsack with our Carnival of Convivial Comradeship.

Also, this epi is brought to you in timely fashion by Henderson’s Turkey Trousers. If you want to do it up right for Thanksgiving this year, stop dressing at the kids’ table and get yourself some Turkey Trousers from Henderson’s Pants!

A COUPLA PLUGS

In the real world, you can catch me live if you’re in the Bay Area, specifically in Marin County, on December 1st when I’ll be hosting a Conversation with Michael Krazny. You may know Michael from NPR. He’s a humorist, a commentator and an author. And we’ll be at the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael starting at 7:30 PM. You can find out more at http://hersh.co/krazny120116.

Then in January, Succotash has been invited to participate in the 16th Annual San Francisco Sketchfest! They're going to have us do a kind of roundtable with a bunch of the podcasters they’re have on hand. Too early to tell you who’s on the docket yet, but I’ll keep you informed. We’re going to be on Saturday, January 22nd, at 4:30, at Piano Fight in the city. Go to http://www.SFSketchfest.com for tix and deets.

THE CLIPS

2 Dope QueensOne of the hottest shows to pop onto the soundcast radar this past year has been 2 Dope Queens with the absolutely delightful Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams, plus their favorite comedians who join them for stories about sex, romance, race, hair journeys, living in New York, and Billy Joel. They’re deep into their second season now, and our Associate Producer Tyson Saner has shaved us off a taste from their Epi17, “Fifty Shades of Matthew McConaughey”, where they’re joined by The Walking Dead’s Ross Marquand. That interview was bookended by two comedians, and Tyson mentioned that the show, to him, feels like a well produced LIVE talk show devoid of FCC regulations. I like that description.

Proudly ResentsThere are lots and lots of fans of Adventure Time out there and friend-of-SuccotashAdam Spiegelman recently talked with staff writer Kent Osborne (also star of Uncle Kent and Uncle Kent 2), on his Proudly Resents soundcast. (Adam and I were supposed to try to coffee it up when I was in LA for the Podfest back in September but between his new child and my not wanting to lose my coveted spot in the Podcast Lab, we couldn’t do it.)

288 PodcastWe had another clip uploaded to us from Matt Slayer, co-host of the 288 Podcast. I met Matt and his wife, Draven Star, in the Podcast Lab last September during the LA Podfest. They are an…interesting couple. Draven Star is an award-winning Erotic Video performer, they like bourbon — the name of their show is taken from 288 Bourbon — and their show is sort of a tribute to the Explicit rating on iTunes, you might say, In the clip they sent along, they interview porn actress Ella Nova.

BertcastCongratulations to comedian Bert Kreischer, who just passed the 200 episode mark on his Bertcast soundcast! Tyson snipped us off a bit of Bert’s epi 201, where he chats with guest and fellow comic and soundcaster Zane Lamprey about the secrets of successful crowdfunding.

Bert’s show is not the only soundcast to hit 200 episodes this week – big shout out to theStrange Times Showthat also hit epi 200! Way to go Davian Dent, Kat Sorens, and Samantha Pett!

Rex Rivetter, Private EyeWe’re definitely in a period of soundcasting where the well-produced narrative is beginning to blossom. Tyson Saner grabbed us a clip from Rex Rivetter, Private Eye, which the show description calls “a modern radio drama”. Set in 1955, it’s a hard-boiled P-I comic thriller, starring Randy Coule as Rex and series director Rhiannon McAfee as Jenny McIntosh. Epi8, which this clip is from, is called Triple Indemnity. (It’s actually part 2, but Tyson pulled this chunk because it features friend-of-SuccotashSabrina Charlie Miller (Changes In Latitudes) in the role of Luca.

Mouth Time w/ReductressThe immensely popular site Reductress has been pumping out a soundcast with the great title of Mouth Time since March of this year. Tyson snipped us off a clip, featuring co-hosts Quenn and Div who “give you everything you expect from a women’s magazine in 2016.” (Tyson said he just HAD to finally check out the show because he’s been binge-listening to Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast on Stitcher and he says every ad he has heard has been for Mouth Time. This clip is from Epi74: “Cold Storage Facility in a Chicken Farm.” Check out more Mouthtime on iTunes, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio. And don’t forget that you can now find Succotash on iHeartRAdio, too, and YouTube! We don’t have a video component tho the show, but you can listen to us anyway!

GIVING THANKS

I wanted to be sure to thank those of you who have been using the Amazon banner at the top of the page on our http://SuccotashShow.com homepage. We just got a check for $46 bucks and change from our skim off the top the past couple of months, which covers a month and a half of web hosting. I really appreciate it. Keep on shopping – I mean, c’mon, it’s time for Christmas, right? Also, I know that a lot of soundcasts are using Patreon these days, but if you want to help Succotash and cut out the middle man, simply use the Donate button on our homesite. In exchange, I’ll mention your name here on the show, plug whatever you want AND I’ll send you…something. I don’t know what — I’ve got all kinds of merch from the Succotashery kicking around Studio P — so I’ll scoop something up and send it to you if you pass along a snailmail address when you donate.

That's going to do it for Epi143. Please remember to pass the Succotash which is even easier now — let friends, family and absolute strangers know they can find us not only through our homesite and iTunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud, but we're also now on the Laughable app, iHeartRadio, and even on YouTube!

I thought we were going to do Succotash Clips this time around because the bag of comedy podcast clips in the back room is overflowing. BUT I managed to get an interview with two of the main movers and shakers behind one of my favorite podcasts so I figured we’d trot out another edition of Chats.

The sitcom soundcast Wooden Overcoats is kicking off their Season 2 this Thursday, October 27th, and I got time on Skype with head writer and co-creator David K. Barnes, along with series co-creator and co-star Tom Crowley, who plays Eric Chapman on the series.

They were kind enough to give up part of their Saturday evening in London for me, so I thought I would drop this episode of Succotash in advance of their Season 2 launch. If you haven’t caught the first season of Wooden Overcoats you might want to binge-listen that sucker before jumping into Season 2.

Go ahead…

I’ll wait…

All caught up? Great!

OTHER STUFF

We have a double dose of our Burst O' Durst, with our resident political comedian and social commentator Will Durst. And, man, the upcoming Presidential election has him SO worked up!

This episode is brought to you by Henderson's Toddler Trows, the perfect pants for your kid all the way through his or her high school years.

OTHER OTHER STUFF

Did I tell you that you can now hear the latest episodes of Succotash on YouTube? It's still audio only but, damn…YouTube! And that we're also now part of the iHeartRadio network?

But none of that is making us a lick of money to keep producing the finest award-seeking comedy soundcast that plays clips of other comedy soundcasts. So please visit the homesite, at http://SuccotashShow.com, and click on the Donate button. Or click on the Amazon banner at the top of the page to get to Amazon next time you're going to do some web shopping — they shave off a tiny pit of the proceeds and kick 'em back to us.

It is I, Marc Hershon, your host and public defender for Epi141 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. And our Special Guests this time around areJamie Morton, James Cooper, and Alice Levine, the cast behind the immensely popular soundcast called My Dad Wrote A Porno, available on Acast.

I don’t think I’ve had an interview on this show that I haven’t enjoyed doing, but I must say that chatting with these guys was a lot of fun. Jamie, whose dad is the one who actually DID write the pornographic novel in question, Belinda Blinked, along with sharpshooters James and Alice were kind enough to set aside part of a Sunday evening in England recently to accommodate me and the time change between London and San Francisco.

For those of you who perhaps haven’t heard My Dad Wrote A Porno, I feature a clip from Epi5 of their show to give you a taste of what the hoopla is all about. It's a simple format, really. Jamie reads passages from the book that his dad – who goes by the name Rocky Flintstone – wrote as Jamie and Alice take turns with their running critique.

The show is now well into the second season and, appropriately enough, focuses on Rocky’s sequel to Belinda Blinked. As you’ll hear in our interview, Jamie was running a little late but James, Alice and I decided to start without him.

OTHER BUSINESS

As if that interview wasn't enough, we've got a double dose of our Burst O' Durst segment featuring our resident political comedian and social commentator Will Durst, plus TWO bonus interviews — a couple of short chats I had at the recent Los Angeles Podcast Festival. The first features Kurt Long and Joey Bragg from The Dudes of Future/Past soundcast, while the second is with George Grimwood, purveyor of the Podnose network from England.

Also, this episode is brought to you by Henderson's HalloPants, just in time for Halloween.

SOUNDCAST VS PODCAST

Our grassroots movement to change the term “podcast” to “soundcast” is being embraced by some, dissed by others. Abner Serd of the Tall Tales & Shaggy Dogs show has changed all of the references on his website to “soundcast”, and the ThunderTaco show is also officially a soundcast. I see there’s also the Salvation Army Soundcast.

On the other hand, I heard via Twitter from the Wheelbarrow Full Of Dicks show and also Chris Lanuti from the Broadcast Basement show that they don’t support the change. Chris says he thinks the name sounds “silly”, which I just don’t get, really. Podcast sounds less silly than soundcast?

That’s okay, of course. I think it’s fair to say that I’m a little disappointed that a couple of shows we’ve often mentioned and supported can’t throw in with us on the “soundcast crusade”, but that’s their prerogative. We still love you guys. Not to mention we still can refer to your shows as a soundcast here on Succotash.

LAST WORDS

Please take a few moments to rate and review Succotash on iTunes, if you’d be so very kind. You can also help us out to defray the cost of producing and hosting this mess by clicking on the Donate button at our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com, or by doing your online shopping by clicking on the Amazon banner at the top of that very same homepage, or purch some merch at our Succotashery, not surprisingly reachable through that same homesite.

Yes, ‘tis I – Marc Hershon – your host and former-prizefighter-now-casino-greeter for Epi140 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. And, as you heard in the opening introduction by our esteemed booth announcer Bill Heywatt, our carpet now match the drapes. That is to say, we’ve got “soundcast” replacing the outmoded “podcast” just about everywhere we can. Special thanks to our engineer/producer Joe Paulino for making that happen.

LA PODFEST

As I drop this ‘sode, I’m heading to the 5th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival! Exciting, indeed. I shall be in attendance all three days, more or less. Holding down space in the Podcast Lab to interview just as many folks as I can. And I will be moderating the panel on Journalism and Podcast on Sunday, Supetember 26th, at 2 PM. We’ve got Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer, the host and producer of the Criminal soundcast and Jefferson Graham from USA Today. Should be a lively discussion.

Which you can listen in on! They’re going to be livestreaming the Podfest this year at http://LAPodfest.com and I can get you a special deal. That’s right. They want $25 from you BUT they’ve given me a discount code to give to Succotash listeners. So click on the link and enter HUFFINGTON as your code and they’re knock five bucks off the price. PLUS they’ll kick us a little chunk just because you used our code to get there! Here’s a link that takes you right in - https://podfest2016.eventbrite.com/?discount=HUFFINGTON

CLIPS

This is an installment of Succotash Clips and we have a whole rack of snippets for you. Some I picked, some were harvested by our associate producer Tyson Saner and at least one was uploaded directly from the soundcasters themselves. We’ll be hearing from The Answering Machine Podcast, the Big Question Podcast, Cave Crew Radio, Changes In Latitude, Dark Odyssey, Droids Canada,Ear Goggles, Improv Nerd, My Favorite Murder, No Such Thing As A Fish and The Unwritable Rant.

OTHER STUFF

We’ve also got a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst, courtesy of our friend, political comic, and social commentator Will Durst. In celebration of Fall, there’s a song from our friend Abner Serd all about apples.

THE CLIPS

Improv NerdI decided to do some double duty this episode and clips the same shows that I reviewed this past week for Splitsider.com and the Huffington Post. First up is Improv Nerd with Jimmy Carrane, a great improvisor and teacher from the Chicago area. He interviews some tremendous improv talent on his podcast and just this last week he dropped an episode interviewing always funny and jst slightly off TJ Miller. In this snippet he talks about creating his character of Erlich Backman on the HBO series, Silicon Valley.

Cave Crew RadioWe get a lot of Twitter retweet love from Choo Choo Stu from Cave Creek Radio, the internet radio show and soundcast, so high time we sliced off a hunk, thanks to Tyson. In addition to Stu from London, there’s Sir Big B, outta New York, and Mr. Wednesday Night from Ontario, Canada. The clip we have is from Cave Crew Radio’s highest rated episode on iTunes, Epi6, entitled “Smells like Urine Sushi”, and it’s a section when the hosts and guest on the show chat with the woman who inspired the meme “McScuse Me”.

Ear GogglesLast episode I mentioned in the Tweetsack segment that I got a an upload from the gang at the defunct Ear Goggles soundcast. Well, guess what? They are defunct no longer — Jeremy Grater, Aaron Ristrow, and Stacy Black are back! Jeremy said they just couldn’t stay away and are recording 12 weeks of episodes, then they’ll take a break, do another 12 in the Spring, and so forth. The clip they sent us was from a special drop they did this summer to announce their return.

My Favorite MurderFor Splitsider.com’s This Week In Comedy Podcasts column I recently reviewed the soundcast which is at the top of the iTunes Comedy chart: My Favorite Murder, with comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. If you like your murder flashbacks delivered with a healthy dose of humor and a side of squeamishness, you have coem to the right place. The hosts do their homework and delve into cases that are sometimes fairly recent and sometimes back in the dusty archives. Most recently they looked at the unfortunately murder of a college law student named Jane Mixer and her death at the hands of supposedly a serial killer who was dubbed the Co-Ed Killer. Turns out that, years later, DNA pointed the musty finger of justice at another joker who was incarcerated for the crime. Here’s a sample of Karen and Georgia’s witty back-and-forth…

Changes In Latitudes: A Transgender ExperienceEver since Succotash began about five and half years ago, one of our staunchest supporters and loyal listeners has been Charley Miller, who said he was partly inspired to start his Random Variety Show soundcast. A lot has changed in five years. Charley now goes by the name Charley Sabrina Miller and describes herself as a 40-something transgenderqueer fem-person, and hosts a soundcast called Changes in Latitude: A Transgender Experience. It’s Charley’s stream-of-consciousness journey that she takes us on through life, self-discovery, relationships and beyond.

Doctor Who Dark OdysseyI have to confess to being a little mixed up about a clip I played in the last Succotash Clips show. It was from a show called Doctor Who Dark Journey. THAT was actually a serious take or homage to Doctor Who — sort of audio fan fiction, I think. The same folks responsible for that also put out their own spoof called Doctor Who Dark Odyssey, which stars Atweh Atweh, Paul Thomas Manz, Jason Gray, Merrin Lalonde and which is – according to the email I got with their direct upload to us — “Dark Odyssey is a take on Doctor Who as if it were produced for audio in America with basically everything wrong about it! Our American Doctor shoots, swears and shags!” So what we have is a clip from a parody of a ripoff of Doctor Who. I think. Still confused.

No Such Thing As A FishThere’s a very popular BBC TV panel show in Britain called QI, which stands for Quite Interesting, hosted by Alan Davies and Stephen Fry, in which the point is to just be interesting. And entertaining. Interesting and entertaining. Now the researchers for the show — because it’s got loads of trivia in it — are four folks called the “QI Elves” because they look everything up — have gone and started a soundcast called No Such Thing As A Fish. Simple format – each of the elves, who as named Dan, James, Anna, and Andy, take turns kicking off a segment with a favorite fact for the week. The others then chime in with facts and tidbits related to that fact. The episode that I reviewed for Splitsider.com features them talking about something called “train jam”.

Answering Machine PodcastTyson found us a really interesting soundcast I hadn’t heard before. It’s called the Answering Machine Podcast, and its tells a story all based on a series of answering machine messages left for a woman named Lila Rose. Created by Sara Polton, who voices Lila, there’s a big cast of people who leave the messages.

The Unwritable RantThe last of my review podcasts from last week was featured in Huffington Post Entertainment. It’s The Unwritable Rant from Juliette Miranda, who is a writer and an essayist — kinda the same thing, right? — and she’s clearly a monologist as well. We’ve certainly had some terrific shows from dudes who can riff all by themselves, like Bill Burr and Greg Proops. But there haven’t been a lot of soundcasts like that from women. So give a listen to Juliette…

Droids CanadaThe gang from a show called Droids Canada got a clip to us through our direct upload link, at http://hightail.com/u/Succotash. About the show they say, “Based out of the Niagara Region in Canada this geeky pop culture show features blunt, comedic and outrageous behavior that occurs on every episode! Hosts Mr. J, AJ (and other rotating hosts Gabbypool, Dr. Stevil, DanMo and DJ Johnny Rock) cover current hot TV shows, comic book movie reviews, fan made things, interviews and any geek other related topic they can get their hands on.” This clip features guest James O’Barr, creator of The Crow.

Big QuestionAre you happy? That’s the Big Question that gets kicked around in Epi49 of the English soundcast Big Question. Hosts are Pete, Maria, Gary, Kay and Rocchi, plus they often have guests. Tyson, who snipped this clip, didn’t tell me if there were guests so I guess that’s MY big question. Let’s just listen…

SOUNDCAST OR DIE

To celebrate the kickoff of our grassroots campaign to change the term “podcast” to “soundcast” in as many places as we can, feel free to drop by the Succotashery via our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com, and pick up some merch emblazoned with our name, Succotash, and the magic words, “The Comedy Soundcast Soundcast” directly beneath it. It’s on shirts, hats, coffee mugs and more.

That's all for now - how to see you at the LA Podfest this weekend or at least know that you're out there listening!

This weekend, September 23-25, I'm heading to Los Angeles to take part in the 2016 Los Angeles Podcast Festival for the weekend.

It's a fun festival, featuring a few dozen of the most popular podcasts today — Welcome To Night Vale, Criminal, Fitzdog Radio, Doughboys, Cashing in With TJ Miller, Alison Rosen is Your New Best Friend, and many more that will all be doing live versions of their programs for the PodFest audience.

There are also a number of panels throughout the weekend, including one on Sunday, September 25th, at 2 PM, on Podcasting and Journalism featuring the host and producer of the Criminal Podcast, and a reporter from the USA Today that I have the honor of moderating.

Why am I telling you all this? You, who may be scattered willy and nilly across the globe this weekend? Because the LA PodFest is going to be livecasting the entire event through their website, http://LAPodFest.com, for those who can make the trek to the Southland. And not just in audio but in video, too!

They're charging $25 for the whole kit n' kaboodle of shows, interview, panels, etc. BUT, if you use my special discount code — HUFFINGTON — you can save $5. And you've even be helping out my own podcast, Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast, because they're going to kick me back some money based on how many people use the HUFFINGTON code to get their discount.

Yes, it’s me – Marc Hershon – your host and found object for Epi139 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. This is an installment of Succotash Chats, where we focus on talking with a soundcaster, or a comedian, or a comedian/soundcaster, or – in this case – a magazine publisher/editor/writer/soundcaster.

Speaking of found objects, our guest is Davy Rothbart, the creator of Found magazine and, as of a couple of months ago, the Found soundcast as well. (You may have noticed that I’ve been using the “soundcast” word a lot already. Our grass roots campaign to shift from using podcast to soundcast is slowly taking off — you’ll even hear our guest Davy Rothbart mention that he’ll back our play and start using it.)

Davy is a really interesting guy and I enjoyed talking with him and getting the backstory on how he decided to start the magazine and how it's opened up his life by getting all of these odd little notes and other found bits of flotsam that people send him. He also shares a few of his favorite "foundities" with us during the course of our chat.

ALSO THIS EPISODE

We have a double shot of our Burst O' Durst segment, courtesy of political comic and social commentator Will Durst. During the Tweetsack segment I play a clip from the 100th epi of Drew Michael's I Might Be Wrong soundcast, only because his PR folks neglected to send me a free copy of his comedy album that they wanted me to plug. And we have a commercial from our sponsor Henderson's Pants for their ever-popular Drifter Chinos.

LIVE APPEARANCES

There are just a few days left before my live appearance with the Spaghetti Jam 40th Year Reunion Improv Comedy Show. Tickets are going fast but there are still some left, so if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday, September 11th – 9/11, that’s right — we’re at the Throckmorton Theatre in downtown Mill Valley. Such a GREAT lineup of performers that are turning out for this - people who really lit the fuse for what we know as improvisational comedy today: Terry McGovern, Gil Christner, Diane Amos, Debi Durst, Michael Bossier, Denis Egan, Robin Eurich, Andy Goldberg, Rodney Sheriff, John Elk, Chris Pray, Jim Cranna, John Bates, Hennen Chambers, and Andrejs Gulbis. Jump over to http://ThrockmortonTheatre.org for the showtime, tickets and other details.

And then later in the month – September 23-25 – I’ll be at the 5th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. In addition to hosting the Journalism and Podcasting panel on Sunday afternoon at 2 PM, I’ll be set up in the Podcast Lab the rest of the time with my equipment doing interviews so stop on by and let’s chat! I’ve already got a couple of folks set up to drop by: Adam Spiegelman from the Proudly Resents soundcast and Chris Gore from the PodCRASH! show and Film Threat Magazine, which is in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to go back into publication.

A LITTLE HELP?

If you want to help keep Succotash going strong, please visit our homesite at http://SuccotashShow.com, where you can click on our Donate button, shop at Amazon.com by using the banner at the top of the page, or grab some merch at the Succotashery. You’ll also find a link to the homesite for the Laughable app there, where you can learn more about this great new way to find, download, stream and follow your favorite and soon-to-be favorite comedy podcasts.

We won't do anything to stop you going to iTunes and both rating and reviewing Succotash, which helps more people to find the show. And speaking of finding the show, Succotash is now available on I Heart Radio, so check us out there, too!

NOTE: If you haven’t been here the past couple of episodes, we’ve started a campaign to change the generic use of the word “podcast” to “soundcast”. (I realize that this gets a little sticky for those shows that pretty much officially have “podcast” in the name. The word is part of our logo design here on Succotash and for the past 5+ years, we’ve been THE Comedy Podcast Podcast.

But the name is anchoring the medium to a single device – the iPod from Apple – so I want to throw it back wide open with the new designation soundcast. Our announcer Bill Heywatt is supposed to be cutting new intros and outros for the show to reflect the name change, but our engineer/producer Joe Paulino has had a computer meltdown at Studio P. So until he gets things back up and rolling we’re stuck with the old P-word in the open and close to the show.

And also have to get around to changing the logo, as seen here. No one said this soundcast biz was going to be easy. Or did they? I can’t remember…

First of all BIG news! BIG BIG News, in a way – it really isn’t going to change anything as far as I know, but Succotash is now available for your listening pleasure through the I Heart Radio chain, network, thing. It hasn’t required us to do much, as far as I can tell but we are on there! Potentially MILLIONS of new listeners can now avoid us. Just go to IHeartRadio.com and search for Succotash OR click this link!

LIVE APPEARANCES!

I’ve got a couple of live appearances coming up. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m going to be part of the 40th year reunion show of Spaghetti Jam, which was a really popular improvisational comedy show in San Francisco starting back in the 1970s. We’re gettign as many of the people that we can find that can still move most of their limbs to show up for this. It’s on Sunday, September 11th – that’s right, 9-11, best date for a comedy show ever, at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley. You can go to http://142ThrockmortonTheatre.org for tickets and information.

And then later in the month – September 23-25 – I’ll be at the 5th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. I’m hosting the Journalism and Podcasting panel on Sunday afternoon at 2 PM, but the rest of the time, I’ll be set up in the Podcast Lab with my equipment doing interviews so stop on by and let’s chat!

Back to business. This is another installment of Succotash Clips, and it’s chock full of tasty snippets of soundcasts and podcasts from all over the web. I clipped a couple, our associate producer Tyson Saner grabbed a few, and we also have some uploaded directly to us using our upload link: http://hightail.com/u/Succotash.

In alphabetical order, we’ll be hearing from Dark Journey, Dazed & Convicted, Dino & Andy’s Skull Juice,Drinking In The Park,Lesser Known Somebodies, Proudly Resents, Spirits, Tao Of Comedy, and The 85th South Show. We also have a visit to the Podcast Graveyard to hold a clip seance with a soundcast from the great beyond.

Plus a Burst O’ Durst from our friend, political comedian, and social commentator Will Durst. We also have a little ditty for our pal Abner Serd. Not to mention a Scrooge McDuck–style dip into the Tweetsack.

This episode of Succotash Clips is brought to you by Henderson’s Pants. If you’re in the market for fictional pants that fit like a dream and don’t really exist, you should get yourself a pair of Henderson’s Pants.

THE CLIPS!

Dino And Andy’s Skull JuiceLet’s start out with a clip from a brand new soundcast, one that reviewed last week for Splitsider.com. It’s got the great title of Dino And Andy’s Skull Juice, and features Dino Stamatopolous, a guy who’s written on SNL, created Adult Swim’s Moral Orel, wrote and appeared on Community, and has written a whole bunch of funny stuff besides. Andy Dick is, well, Andy Dick. He’s been a standup comedian, sketch and improv player, as well as having appeared in films and television. These guys were pals for 25 years, although, as Dino points out in episode #1, he didn’t talk to Andy for 10 years. (Our esteemed Associate Producer Tyson Saner snagged this clip from their kickoff episode, which picks up right from their opening theme song.)

Lesser Known SomebodiesFriend-of-the-SuccotashAbner Serd sent along a link to a comedy podcast he found out of South Africa. It’s called Lesser Known Somebodies, hosted by Johannesberg-based comedian Simmi Areff, and the latest installment features fellowlocal comicAlfred Adriaan. Took me a few minutes to get into the rhythm of the accent but then these guys unspool a kind of fascinating glimpse inside the current comedy scene in and around Johannesberg. (I got such a kick out of listening to Lesser Known Somebodies that I reviewed it in last week’s Huffington Post.)

Proudly Resents We got a clip sent over by Adam Spiegelman, he of the Proudly Resents podcast. (He was complaining that there was no upload button on our Succotashhomesite, which is true. I am working to remedy that. But you can always just got tohttp://hightail.com/u/Succotash and then upload a 3-5 minute MP3 clip.) He recently had Conan writer Todd Levin on to help him dismantle Ninja 3: The Domination. At one point Todd talks about the only time Conan O’Brien ever got sued. As Adam tells it, “It involves a one-hit wonder, an 80’s film, and Tim Tebo.”

Dazed & Convicted: CraigslostWe got a clip uploaded to us from the delightful Monica Hamburg, host of the Dazed & Convicted soundcast. Lately, it’s been subtitled as Dazed & Convicted: Craigslost. And why, you might ask? Monica likes combing the seedier side of Craigslist and presents, literally, the pick of the litter. Litter being the operative word…

The 85 South ShowTyson clipped us a taste of The 85 South Show, which is billed as “a podcast for people who don’t know what a podcast is." It’s hosted by DC Young Fly and Karlous Miller. This clip we have is from an episode done in the wake of police-involved shootings, the killing of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille, with the hosts and their guest, Last Comic Standingchamp Clayton English, discussing solutions to stop the violence, and the role that comedy plays in the social dialog. #blacklivesmatter

Spirits Okay, I don’t know how many times I have said on this show that we prefer to play clips rather than promos. Clips make for better, real-er sample of the show. And I can talk about ‘em. When we had Hal Lublin and Mark Gagliardi on earlier this year, they even made a definitive We Got This ruling that clips are better than promos. But some people don’t get it, and that’s fine. We support all soundcasts and so it is that spirit that I present this 30-second promo of Spirits without additional commentary…

Drinking In The ParkJust the opposite of the challenge of Spirits is what I’ve got going on with a show called Drinking In The Park. The hosts are Neil and Johnny, per their direct upload to Succotash, with no last names. But they sent me the whole episode Issue 10, Live At Toronto Comicon. Not a clip, but almost 10 minutes of chat and music stuff. Still better than a promo! I sliced out a few minutes of them talking to some joker who calls himself That Joker Guy.

Doctor Who: Dark JourneyThis is a clip from a show called Doctor Who: Dark Journey. I don’t think it’s officially affiliated with the British TV series Dr. Who at all. In fact, I know it isn’t, because here’s the note that came with clip: “The attached file is a clip from AM Audio Media's main audio dramaDoctor Who: Dark Journey. Dark Journey is an unofficial fan made audio drama featuring professional actors, writers, sound designers and composers. Our theme tune is by the UK prog rock group 'Traffic Experiment'. Dark Odyssey is a bit of a wink and nod self parody of it and all things fan made.”

The Tao of ComedyThis podcast has a pretty grim origin story. The host, Kelly Maclean, had been at last year’s Just For Laughs festival in Canada, where she interviewed a number of comedians. Four months later, her brother Andrew was killed in a car accident. The conversations she had in Montreal were the things that brought her back from crushing depression and so she’s launched the podcast in order to continue that kind of deep interchange with funny people. In this clip from Epi10, she’s talking to Brad Williams, standup and co-host of the About Last Night soundcast.

Podcast GraveyardIn the 5 years that I’ve been running Succotash, comedy writer Caleb Bacon has had two very listenable soundcasts. The first was called The Gentleman’s Club which took a podcast dirtnap at the end of 2012. A few months later, Caleb was back with more of an instructional soundcast called Man School, in which he talked to guys from various walks off life, although most were somehow connected to show business, and he’d get their story about some deep subject matter. A little over a year ago, in June of 2015, the last known class of Man School was in session. The clip we're featuring is from a few epis before that one, #83, with Caleb and his guest comic, writer and fellow podcaster Mick Betancourt(The Mick Betancourt Show), talking about life as a sober alcoholic.

Country Fair SongThe latest ditty from our friendAbner Serdcelebrates the "season" of county fairs. Special thanks to Abner for joining our "Soundcast Movement"!

SUCCOTASH CAN USE YOUR HELP!

There are a number of things you could do that would help us out in making sure that Succotash continues. First and foremost would be your kind indulgence to head over to iTunes to both rate and review us favorably (AKA 5 stars, please!) Our Donate button is clickable 24/7 at http://SuccotashShow.com, and we have now taken the limits off of how much you can give. That’s right! The sky’s the limit for you listeners who have been holding back because you were afraid you couldn’t give enough. While visiting our homesite, feel free to also click the Amazon banner at the top of the page (although I just learned recently that it may not be working properly if you browse with Google Chrome.) And for those of you who enjoy wearing t-shirts and sweatshirts, or dig drinking your hot beverages from a porcelain mug, we also have merch at the Succotashery, accessible on that very same homesite.

This time around we bring you an edition of Succotash Chats, featuring my interview with Matt Knudsen — comedian, actor, bon vivant, and host of the Grabbing Lunch podcast. Matt was kind enough to have me and Cole Stratton, co-host of the Pop My Culture podcast, as guests on his show when I was in LA last year. As he was recently playing a Tuesday night here in Northern California, I thought I’d return the favor. A few weeks ago, we grabbed dinner and a chat at the Piazza D’Angelo in Mill Valley before his show.

We talk about his early days as a merchant marine before he caught the comedy bug, and some of the acting and other stuff he's been up to since. (We don't talk specifically about any of these, but Matt's appeared recent in such TV shows as The Mindy Project, Rosewood, The League, and Why? With Hannibal Buress.)

ALSO THIS EPISODE

We’ve got a Burst O’ Durstsegmentin this episode. I always appreciate political comedian and social commentator Will Durst's segments on the show but especially with this year’s Presidential race being so wonky — and publicly embarrassing for Americans with what we’ve got running on both tickets.

We also have a call via the SpareMin appwith Reverend John Price, a faithful listener who is on the verge of dropping his own soundcast soon.

And this whole mess is brought to you by Henderson's Back To S'cool Pants. Where would this show be without Henderson's Pants? Well, the same place we are, actually, which means we still can use you vigorous use of our Donate button up at our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com. While you're there, don't be afraid to use the Amazon banner at the top of the page to do you shopping at the world's largest everything store — because we get a little taste of whatever you spend there. And we've got a link on our site to our Succotashery, whould you want to grab a t-shirt, mug or other piece of merch festooned with the Succotash logo!

PODCAST VS SOUNDCAST

I mentioned last episode, Succotash Clips Epi136, that I’m going to start a movement to replace the name “podcast” with “soundcast”, because why should Apple retain hold of the medium in the name with the vestige of a technology they've basically discontinued?)

So I’ve contacted our musical director, Scott Carvey, and asked if he’d be able to retool his portion of our theme song to say “soundcast” instead of “podcast”. And our booth announcer, Bill Heywatt, is getting ready to record new intros and outros for the show that reflect that change as well.

It’s likely going to take some time to make the switchover and then will come the long, hard road to getting an entire world to change how they think and talk about the medium but what the heck? I’ve got nothing better to do with my time. And, in fact, our friend Dave-In-The-Cave, former co-host of former podcast Taco Tuesday, is about to start his new show, the Thunder Taco Soundcast.

Can it be? Yes! It’s me! Marc Hershon, your host and SPF30 sunscreen for Epi136 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. We’re back once again with a Succotash Clips episode, with an installment jam-packed with fresh clippage.

A couple of things before we get into the meat of this show…

NOT CLIPS

First of all, I’m thinking of starting a campaign to change the generic name of “podcast” to “soundcast”. There are three trademarks in the US for soundcast but two of them are for audio equipment and the third is for a teleconferencing service. So if we all start using soundcast now to describe the podcast experience, there’s a good chance we can keep it in the public domain. (We’ve talked on the show before about how the podcast name was coined around the iPod from Apple, a device that is no longer even produced. And it will do away with the even more awkward “video podcast” which isn’t really even a thing – the video folks can just have videocasts if they want that for a name.)

Secondly, it looks like I’ll be participating in an upcoming celebration of the 40th anniversary of Spaghetti Jam in San Francisco. Spaghetti Jam was an early improv group/pickup game where pretty much any of the San Francisco-based improvisers at the time could drop in, including folks like Robin Williams, Jim Crenna, Lorenzo Matawaran, Michael Bossier, John Elk, Debi Durst, and a whole bunch of others, including yours truly. Well, we’re getting what’s left of the Jam back together for one night. On Sunday, September 11th, we’ll be at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco. For more info, Check out the Spaghetti Jam page on Facebook.

And finally, I’m also beginning to get prepared for this year’s 5th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. Last episode I had a brief interview with Chris Mancini, co-host of the Comedy Film Nerds podcast and co-organizer of the LA Podfast. And in that talk we mentioned that I will be on-hand to moderate the Podcast And Journalism panel, which is going to be great fun. It’s going to be on at 2 PM on Sunday, and the panelists include Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer from the Criminal podcast and Jefferson Graham of USA Today.

All right, that’s about me. Now let’s get to the good stuff.

For Succotash Clips this time around, we’ve for snippets from Big Question, Comedy Film Nerds, Fake The Nation, Here We Are, Monday Morning Podcast, Psycho Pshow, WTF and the most recent entrant into the Podcast Graveyard to date — the Taco Tuesday Podcast, our buddies in Killeen, Texas, who decided to shut it down just this week with their 100th episode.

Add to that a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst segment with political comedian and social commentator Will Durst, whose been all over the Republicant and Democrap Conventions the past couple of weeks, a brand new spot from Henderson’s Pants and we will toss in a little closing ditty from friend-of-Succotash Abner Serd.

CLIPS

WTFI’m reviewing the episode out this week of WTF with Marc Maron, who has Jane Lynch in the garage as his guest. I think she’s hilarious and she also seems pretty level-headed and decent as a person. In this sample from the show, she’s talking about hoW she first met director and comic/actor, Christopher Guest, then later ended up in his Best In Show movie.

Big QuestionOur next clip comes from the Big Question podcast and was submitted directly to us through our direct upload link. The note that accompanied it tells us a bit about the show and goes a little something like this: “Saw your requests for submissions on Twitter and figured that we’d throw our collective hats in the ring. The Big Question podcast has been in operation for slightly over a year and brings a weekly dose of no holds barred comedy and discussion. The four regular hosts are joined by a ever-changing collection of guests where we discuss a mass of topics from having sex with David Cameron for money (epi 2) to flatmates cleanliness problems (epi 33) to the inner workings of gay culture with our regularly occurring friend Rocchi."

Comedy Film NerdsThe other chief source for our clips here on Succotash Clips is our noble Associate Producer Tyson Saner. From his lair in an undisclosed location somewhere where in the northern reaches of California, Tyson is constantly slicing and dicing delectable chunks of podcast goodness. We have several he’s cooked up this week and the first is from the aforementioned Comedy Film Nerds podcast, hosted by Chris Mancini and Graham Elwood. It's from from epi317 back in April, and features guest Geoff Tate.

Monday Morning PodcastAnother show I reviewed for Splitsider this week was the Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr. What a funny guy Burr is. And I admire his ability to just hold a mic and freeball his way through an hour without a co-host, a sidekick, or any other sort of production elements. I mean, he can’t read a spot worth a damn but, other than that, he’s on a level that includes Greg Proops and maybe Greg Fitzsimmons back when he occasionally didn’t have a guest. Get up to Splitsider.com if you want to read my review and here’s a snippet from the episode I reviewed, where Bill’s talking about Rudy Guilliani and cops.

Psycho PshowTyson sliced us off a hunk of the Psycho Pshow – both of those words start with “P”, by the way, hence their tagline, “The World’s Worst Named Podcast – which is hosted by VJ, Chaidez and Toly. (No idea if I’m pronouncing those names right, by the way. Except maybe VJ because, really, how can you screw up initials?) I don't even try to describe the conversation in this 5-minute clip. I think they maybe were driving or walking somewhere while they were recording it. I can’t even tell.

Fake The NationThere’s a newUScomedy panel show that revolves around politics and current events. It’s called Fake The Nation and is hosted by Negin Farsad. Every episode she has a couple of comedically-inclined guests to help her comb through the nit and the grit of American and international politics. I mentioned Episode 3 this past week on Splitsider, when the talk was mostly about the political conventions and her guests were Dean Obeidallah and Nato Green.

Here We AreComedians are just curiosity seekers like the rest of us. I mean, with podcast such as Professor Blastoff (may it rest in peace), The Infinite Monkey Cage, Talk Nerdy and many others, the hosts are often comics just looking for answers. Tyson clipped us off some of the Here We Are show, hosted by comedian Shane Mauss. And in his Epi77, Shane talks up music and psychology with guest Daniel Levitin, who is a cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, best-selling author, musician and record producer.

Taco TuesdayThis past week saw some friends-of-Succotash toss in the virtual towel. Podcast Dan, Adam Wolf and Dave In The Cave over at the Taco Tuesday podcast hung up their mikes. They managed to hang in for their centennial, Epi100, but some siutations with their physical studio space as well as what they perceived as low listenership, finally decided them on closing up shop. Normally we wait until a show’s been in the ground for a year or more before we feature it in the Podcast Graveyard, and I have a feeling these guys will be back in one configuration or another. But for now, we feature — literally — the last few minutes of the podcast that was Taco Tuesday.

Tall Tales & Shaggy Dogs (The May Bee Song)So I got a note from our favorite acapella song stylist, Abner Serd, host of the Tall Tales & Shaggy Dogs podcast. Abner says, “Hi Marc - A few months ago, I tagged you in a song called 'Reflections on a Snowflake,' while acknowledging that it didn't pack as much humor as some of the others. Same goes for this one - it's all yours if you decide to use it, but I understand if it doesn't quite fit. Here is my latest little ditty, called The May Bee Song.”

In closing, I did something this week that I don't think I've done since Succotash kicked off over 5 years ago, and that is take a long, hard look at our download numbers.

Guess what? They suck!

I mean, they're not horrible but they're not the kind of numbers that advertisers drool over. So if I can infringe on your delicate sensibilities to PLEASE get up to iTunes in good haste and give Succotash a 5-star rating and a few sentences of a glowing reviews, I will promise to redouble my efforts to churn out this show on a regular, weekly basis. But it's going to take a team to pull this off, otherwise we might just have to go the way of our friends at Taco Tuesday, bust a gum machine, and get the hell out of here...